Dudley's Tale
by bushixx
Summary: 20 year's later. Harry visits Dudley. The same greetings, the same faces, the same trips and basically, the same procedure. A slight difference this time, a party. Something Harry doesn't bank on happening. The same forces already fought; unite...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I arrived at the door and saw that same, familiar doorknocker nailed to the door. The door was painted, I noticed, not the same colour it had been last year, a definite change since the last time I came and stood at this spot, with my family in nearly the exact same position. We always came back, aging another year every time. I felt this was becoming, or already had become a bit of a tradition. I knew the other's despised coming here. Every year, a couple of day's before we set of here, the children moods noticeable took a downturn at the thought of coming to stay here for another fortnight. I didn't mind, but maybe that was because I was used to my cousin, having lived with him for about 16 years after my 1st birthday and then kept coming back every summer since I first parted with him. I didn't really feel any nervousness repeating the process; I simply had the same expectancy of being welcomed in the exact same way, offered the same refreshments, given the same room, and leaving the same way. Nothing really ever changed, but that was only to be expected as Dudley was raised by Vernon and Petunia, the two most predictable people I had ever met. This was obviously going to have an effect on Dudley.

A truce had been formed between me and Dudley since my summer after Voldemort returned without me actually knowing it had. That truce was the only reason me and Dudley kept on visiting each other at all. If it hadn't been for that incident where the Dementor's had called on unexpectedly, and I'd saved both our souls from them, Dudley wouldn't be here and he must realise that for he still put up with me. I was quite touched when Dudley had listened and heeded me even after originally believing it to be me who had put him through it. Once he heard the word's I'd shouted at his mum and dad, he believed me even though I still wasn't quite sure that they still did. I was even more touched on the day that the Dursley's left and at Dudley's confusion as to why I wasn't coming with them. For him even to ask why I wasn't coming was a great deal from Dudley as he rarely ever displayed emotions of anything to do with consideration, love then being a distant matter. And so ever since then, I'd been visiting them every summer apart from the rare occasion that they came over to us. This only ever happened four times over the past 20 years. The first time for mine and Ginny's marriage, then stayed for a week after James was born, another week after Albus was born and then another week after Lily was born; all visits on our invitation. And every year that they didn't visit, we took the trouble of filling in the gaps and visited them for two weeks, like we were doing this time.

I knew full well that James and Albus despised our regular visits. Lily was okay about them, but Teddy seemed to hate it the most. Being the eldest and yet the most misbehaving, he'd taught James and Albus a few tricks that he knew me and Ginny (especially Ginny taking into account the teenage-ish humour still residing in me even at this age) wouldn't approve of. Therefore me and Ginny had decided to come down on him hard every time we visited as we knew he would lure James and Albus and with those two by his side, he could cause chaos in a house owned by very people almost the exact opposite of us. I knew it would be much easier to give in and simply not take him with us but being a very stubborn person, I didn't want to give in. As he had rented a flat and was perfectly capable of taking care of himself now that he'd left Hogwarts and was now setting up his own business on a loan I'd given him, I'd had to go to extremes to persuade him because simple punishments such as 'if you don't come, I'll ground you for a month, the **summer month!'** weren't going to work on him. So I'd told him that I'd tell Victoire of his passionate yet secret affair he'd shared with a fifth year girl while he was at Hogwarts but had never mentioned it to Victoire as he knew she wouldn't've stayed with him after she knew of all the things they happened to have done locked in a broom cupboard. I knew this was below the belt, (as did Teddy), because Teddy had trusted me with this information as it was happening and so far, I'd managed to keep my vow of silence. But it was the only way.

Zooming back to the present, I stood there for a few moments, hand poised to raise and release the knocker and alert Dudley and his family of our presence. Ginny, James, Albus, Lily and I all heard movement behind the threshold of the house. Someone hastily opened the door and only after us Potter family got a good view of the smart shoes neatly stacked in a posh looking cupboard in the hallway did a familiar someone poke their head out to greet us. She was Dudley's wife, a smart and strict looking woman with eyes very big. She would've looked very beautiful had it not been the look upon her face. It was that of forceful kindness, but not real enough to hide the frown upon her face, a frown that looked as though she were looking down at something unpleasant. For some reason, this look also reminded me of my Hogwarts days, the expression that Minerva McGonagall had every time I was caught in misdoing, expected childishness and wrongdoing. I felt the unreasonable and incomprehensible urge to smile sheepishly when Augusta looked at me that way.

'Hello. Finally made it, I hope your journey wasn't too bad,' she greeted us in the best thing to a forceful welcoming smile she could manage. I felt Albus and James behind me trying their best to hide sniggers and I knew exactly why they were. She was just so old-fashioned. She was clothed in the sort of frock that people used to wear in the nineteen nineties. Her haircut was strikingly similar to Petunia's from when I was in the first half of magical high school and she had an uptight 'take-one-wrong-step-and-you'll-regret-it' look on her face. Although I thought this was to be expected. She had been raised in a very posh muggle town, raised to act as though she were constantly under the snobbish nose of the Queen.

'No, not too bad. Afterall, broom's can be speedy when you need them to be,' Ginny replied, with a smile much less forced. Augusta cringed at the sound of the word _broom_ but it seemed she'd become used to it for she didn't dwell on it. She gestured for us to come in while stepping aside and I raised a leg to enter the threshold of the house expecting for Dudley to be in the living room just beyond the door to their left, waiting there with his son by his side in front of their fireplace like they did every year. After carefully piling all our luggage in the same hallway where their shoes where kept, we all proceeded to entering the sitting room. As I was closest, I turned the knob without waiting for Augusta to offer us entry. I looked into the room. There was Dudley, standing there with his behind facing the fire that was adding to the illumination of room coming for a chandelier whose grandeur was fitting for a roughly small sized room such as this. Dudley was in what Harry recognised to be his best grey-brown suit, a burgundy handkercheif poking out his breast-pocket and his son a little in front of him wearing an equally posh suit but in a much darker colour. William (Dudley's son) looked slightly less over-fed and bloated as Dudley had been in the day's I had had to live with him. This older Dudley (who was in still pretty much about the same shape as he had been; round) had aquired a few more grey's since I last saw him as well as a few more lines. His moustache was strikingly like that of Uncle Vernon's, I guess Dudley and his wife looked just as similar to Dudley's parents as Me and Ginny looked similar to my parents. I walked up to him offering my hand in a handshake, muttering my greeting as I came. He grasped it, shook and then released again. I noticed that he seemed tense although I just reasoned myself by saying that it's not every day that your wizard of a cousin and his entire magical family come to stay with all your non-magical friends for a fortnight. But shouldn't he have grown used to this after all our visits?

After exchanging comments on our journey, the weather, the muggle world and the wizarding world's politics (Dudley and his wife very reluctant when it came to my and Ginny's turn to keep them up-to-date on our world), a rather pregnant silence then occured. They were all out of topics of conversation. Afterall, none of them had ever been the most talkative of types. I noticed James and Albus both grinning at Dudley's son William. I knew that the only reason James and Albus had put up with coming here was because of William. James and Albus had always been used to hanging around with wizard kids of their age. Having this boy that was inferior to them when it came to magical abilities meant that James and Albus had just found their new prank victim. I thought it was only to be expected if William was very reluctant to engage with them as he was aware of James and Albus's sense of humour and how he was nearly always the victim of whatever cruel schemes those two had in mind. No wonder I was always very hard two to three days before we set off here. I caught their eyes and gave them a warning glare. I knew they got the message as they both hung their hands even if their residing sniggering continued. I also noticed Lily giving them a disgusted look, shaking her head and looking away. I caught her eye and gave her an agreeing smile. If not for James' and Albus', I prided myself in Lily's attitude. She, despite being the youngest out of all three of them, was most responsible and least tempted by the sort of childish and immature practical jokes James and Albus regularly planned out.

'Where is, erm, the others,' Augusta tried, trying to break the awkward silence.

'Well, Ron, Hermione, Rose and Hugo are all going to come a little later. They were held up for a few hours because Ron needed to be somewhere. As for Teddy, I know he usually comes with us, but he's going to arrive with the rest of them this time. Also, he's not staying here for the entire time. He needs to work since he's left school and only has permission for a one week holiday,' Ginny went through everyone, ticking each of them off with each of her fingers.

No-one really knew what to say afterwards, Augusta's vain attempt to start off a conversation had come and gone without any real results. The awkward silence prolonged. It wasn't an intense silence. It was just that no-one knew what to say. And no-one had the nerve to break it. Thankfully though, Ginny was never one to shy away.

'So, do you have any plans of what your going to be doing this summer?' Ginny said, with many pauses, keeping her speech rich with opportunities for them to speak.

'Actually,.. yes, we have,' Augusta said, her words too with many pauses and questioning glances at Dudley. Dudley was staring at her back, keeping his mouth shut and mutely forcing her to carry on.

'Really? What kind of plans?' Ginny asked, taken aback at the feedback of an empty and unenthusiastic question but clinging on to the conversation opener.

'We'd actually- err, planned a little party,' Dudley murmured, relieving Augusta of the pressure to carry on. He was edgy and reluctant for reasons beyond me.

'A party? With who?' I asked slowly, now starting to comprehend the reason Dudley was hesitant. Them being muggles, it followed logically that their guests were going to be muggles. The only problem was that we were here as well. And a house mainly full of muggles and a few adult wizards was okay, I knew that that may be the reason Dudley was edgy, but the thing that worried me, was that James and Albus were there as well.

'Just, a few friends. Actually, some of the people coming might still remember you,' Dudley confessed.

'Know me? How come they know me?' I asked, very confused as the only muggles I had happened to come into contact were Dursley's. Otherwise, I couldn't think who else, apart from maybe Hermione's relatives.

'Well, some of those people went to our primary. After a few years, when you started disappearing to go to that- that school, they started to know you as the 'Potter boy'. Remember?' Dudley asked, looking at me.

I was inclined to play dumb and still pretend to be surprised that they still remembered me. But I knew Uncle Vernon had spread the word far and wide that I went to 'Saint Brutes' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys' just so that any chances that any rumours saying different was completely quashed. I lowered my head slightly, remembering my early dark years when Dudley used to bully all the class, mainly me, and said he'd bully them even more if they wanted to befriend me, just to bully me further. It seemed, not to harden my expression, but drain it of every other emotion. This was seen as a bad sign by the Dursley's. Dudley lowered his head in shame and I knew that he was regretting slightly his behaviour in those times.

Looking back at those times, I thought that it hadn't gone well. All that'd I'd really wanted at those times was to have a friend. Now, that thought seemed laughable. That's why I'd never mentioned it to Ron or Hermione or even Ginny. I'd been incredibly lonely. All the while alone thanks to Dudley's savataging and to Aunt Petunia's lack of care when it came to my clothes or general appearance.

No-one interrupted my quiet thoughts I noticed. James and Albus half saw Dudley's comment as a little funny. But saw my face and their faces too respectfully drained of any humorous expression.

In a way though, I was quite excited about the prospect of meeting those people. Now that we were all grown up and my life had changed so drastically and so much for the better. It'd be nice to show them how far I'd gone. Obviously not saying everything, they were still muggles.

'Oh,' was all I could think off saying.

'When is the party?' Ginny asked.

'About two days from now.' Augusta replied. 'We hadn't thought you'd be coming. You called about two or three days after we'd already finalised all the arrangements.'

'Well, atleast we'll have Ron and Hermione,' Ginny said looking at me and saying in an undertone. 'They'll definitely be here by then.'

I gave a slight smile. Ron would be very apprehensive of mingling with a whole host of muggles for the first time but I knew Hermione wouldn't have anything to worry about being a muggle-born herself. What I wasn't sure of was Hugo's and Rose's reactions. I thought that for them, this may be a new experience for them just like it would be for Ron.

After dwelling on the thought of the party for a few more minutes, Augusta finally suggested having dinner. Another few hours later, after a long and filling roasted chicken, we all trudged upstairs to sleep.

As I lay in bed, I continued thinking about the party. I was a little excited and a little nervous, a little apprehensive and also a little rueful about it. I rolled under the blanket and saw Ginny, she had already gone to sleep. I'd been trying to talk to her ever since finding out about the party, but couldn't because I'd wanted it to be in private and between the Dursley's and the kid's, I hadn't managed to find the time. And now, she was asleep. So I simply sighed, and let sleep take me.


	2. Chapter 2

The next few days went by predictably. James was caught trying to sneak an ugly green pulsing thing into William's soup, while Albus successfully pranked William into thinking he was about to be squeezed into a small box and used for spider's legs in a gruesome potion that was to be fed to his parents. It was not funny. They were both punished. James and Albus were both to wash and dry all the cups in Augusta's Queen's tea set collection. We obviously took permission from Augusta before we set the punishment though. She did so with a frown and pursed lips but even she was quite keen to watch them suffer for doing that to her son.

The rest of the Weasley's arrived. Ron didn't engage with them too much. Which was only to be expected. Hermione, however, was most suited of all of them to living with muggles, being brought up by them, and was always keen to talk muggle with them. Lily and Rose were together most of the time. They understood each other and were never the one's to cause mischief. It was always Rose that made the decisions in between the two as she was older. But that never meant she dominated over Lily. No, I just thought that it was in her nature as she was much more like Hermione than Ron.

With them came Teddy who politely greeted them and tried to act as gentlemanly as possible but still couldn't help siding with James and Albus when they were planning their misendeavors with William. I watched him closely over those two days simply because I knew him. Fortunately for him though, he kept his behaviour up to scratch and I'd only ever had to go as far as giving him a warning glare.

The party, however, was a slightly worrying event looming over the horizon for Ginny and Ron. They'd never had to engage with muggles before and weren't sure exactly how to act. Hermione was, obviously, used to it. I'd been brought up by the Dursley's so I was pretty sure what I was suppose to and not suppose to do even if I hadn't put those rules to practice since my days living with them. The kids were more excited than apprehensive about the whole affair. Like Ginny and Ron, the children too had never had to be around with muggles but that didn't seem to matter to them.

The day of the party came and Ginny, out of nerves or otherwise, had got all our outfits ready the night before. It was very unusual for Ginny to be this Hermione-ish and I thought she was a lot more worried about this than I'd originally thought. Ginny and Hermione both wore similar dresses. They wore slim cocktail dresses layered with silk underneath and a see-through matching-in-colour expensive material on top. I wondered where they got these dresses from and I remembered when Ginny came to me with a plea for money so that her and Hermione could go and buy some appropriate outfits for everyone to wear in the unexpected party. I gathered from this that Hermione had gone to ask Ron for money as well. I didn't see the point in asking us though. Me and Ron weren't the only one's with money. Hermione and Ginny were both hard-working and independent women who earned enough money to keep the family going on their own without our help.

By the time everyone came back down, we all looked extremely posh. We boys wore the same-looking suits that only varied in size and colour. Lily and Rose were both dressed in pretty-in-pink pale dresses that made them look (in Hermione's words) 'incredibly adorable'. Augusta was dressed in a frilly sort of dress that Aunt Petunia would have worn at Uncle Vernon's work parties. She reminded of me of her so much at times. This was one of those times.

We all trundled downstairs into the garden where all the tables and chairs were set and a long table was set at the side for food. Slowly, the seconds ticked by getting closer and closer to 4. Augusta ran around in a panicked state trying to keep 3 dishes cooking as well as organise plates, cutlery and all the rest of the dinner things at the same time. Hermione took pity on her and went to help as soon as she was ready. Ginny didn't know as much about cooking and wasn't sure she was able to stand Augusta, much less that Augusta would let her anywhere near the food. Augusta trusted Hermione much more than she did Ginny. So Ginny stayed in the garden sorting out the tables and chairs and decorating the place suitable for the guests while William was hiding out in Dudley's room for reason's beyond me. Ron, Teddy and I just sat in the corner of the garden watching over the kids to make sure they didn't mess anything up, our conversation thin and lacking.

'Where did Hermione learn to make muggle food like that?' Ron murmured quietly, watching Hermione and Augusta bustling about in the kitchen.

'Don't you eat Hermione's food every day?' I asked in return with a slight laugh.

'Yeah, well, it's nearly always the recipes that she'd learnt from Mum. Never muggle food though.'

'I swear I came your's once and ate muggle food,' Teddy said frowning.

'Nah, I can't remember,' Ron said, looking back at us. I shrugged in reply. Silence took us again. Looking around, I noticed something.

'Hey, where are James and Albus?'

'I dunno. I thought they were inside.' Teddy said, nodding back to the house.

'Do you think maybe we should go back and see what they're up to?' The reasons for this needed no explanation.

'Nah, they're coming out now,' Ron replied watching the door open with James and Albus filing out looking bored.

'Where were you two?' I asked sternly as they approached us.

'Exploring,' James answered. The answer would've made me suspicious but the tone and the expression made me think that it was nothing to worry about because they hadn't seem to have found anything interesting. It being the Dursley's house, I wasn't particularly surprised.

'Dad, was it always this boring with the Dursley's?' Albus asked in a whiney tone, taking a seat by Teddy.

'You've been coming here nearly every single year, I would've thought you'd known that by now,' I replied with a slight smile.

'No, I mean when you lived with Uncle Dudley's parents. You did when you were a kid, didn't you?' His question took me by surprise. He'd never asked me about my childhood. The only reason he knew about where I lived was because of how many times we'd talked over it with them listening in.

'Well, yes. But only for the first few years. After I started going to Hogwarts, things got a little more interesting.' I said this was a smile as I remembered my Hogwarts letter arriving, the start of a whole and untold adventure. All these memories made me chuckle inwardly as I remembered the indignancy of the Dursley's. I hadn't meant to show such a reaction because I knew it was a spark of conversation for Albus, James.

'Why, what happened?' Albus prompted, a look of expectancy on his face. He knew vague bits of information about my time as a teenager, and knew that it had been nothing like anyone else's.

'Umm, well, nothing really, just the usual, I come home every summer and we got visitors and it all snowballed.' Indeed we had had a number of visitors each summer mostly all visiting for some reason linked with me, the exception of course being Marge.

'Aww, Dad, don't be like that. Tell,' Albus started pleaded. I really didn't want to have to recount each of summer's in turn to them all because for one thing, I knew now wasn't the time as we were in the middle of preparing for guests. Another reason was that I knew some parts were a bit too complicated for them to understand in the space of a few minutes.

'I'll tell you what happened,' Ron interrupted in an unusually low voice as he shifted heavily to face them, ready to tell the story. Albus and James both sensed that it was now Ron they should focus on as I wasn't prepared to talk.

'First summer before Harry actually got to go to school, they got tracked down in the middle of the sea by Hagrid. Second summer, a house-elf nearly got Harry expelled. Third summer, Harry's uncle's sister came to visit and then got blown up. Fourth summer, we all got trapped in the Dursley's chimney before we nearly died at a Quidditch match. Fifth summer Harry and Dudley both got visited by Dementors, then Harry really did get expelled, then un-expelled again. Sixth summer Dumbledore dropped by, and seventh summer, Harry didn't go back to school at all… 'til about the end of the school year that is.'

Ron had said all this while ticking each year off with his fingers and staring upwards into his head as though trying to remember it all in order. A slightly shocked silence left in his speech's wake. Albus and James were both either staring at Ron or me, looking as though it had to be a little exaggerated. They obviously hadn't been expecting that much. I knew that they knew the major points of what had happened to me during school, but I guess they never really bothered asking about the bits in between. Teddy seemed to have been going through it all with Ron but was opening his mouth to ask about the few parts which he hadn't known himself.

'When did you get trapped-' Teddy got cut off by the chirping noise of the doorbell ringing. August ran out looking stricken with still an apron on and a huge spoon that was steadily dripping more and more sauce onto the floor in hand. She didn't stay there for long though. She quickly ran back in, assumedly to let whoever it was in.

I stood up and then looked back at Ron who didn't look inclined to stand but did so grudgingly; being forced to get up after already being sat down for a couple of hours pretending to be working hard every time Hermione poked her head out wasn't easy, after all.

We all stood in a line waiting to welcome the guests once they came through to the back. We heard many thuds and Augusta's fluttery voice promptly followed by a series of unfamiliar voices, one of which was a deep rumbling but not unkind voice, as well as a female voice that sounded simple and humble.

We waited there for them to appear where the first thing they would see was us. After a maybe a minute and a half where we knew Dudley and William had come down to see to the newly arrived guests. Teddy took the last-moment opportunity to turn his normal blonde hair his favourite shade of bright blue with a rebellious pink streak in the middle. I felt like shouting at him. I knew exactly why he had done so, he knew that I wouldn't approve of this and this was why he'd picked now to change his hairstyle. The guests had arrived and now, I could do nothing about it.

Then they finally all came out into our view. We all smiled automatically. Ron's smile was sheepish, his ears had gone pink around the edges. I, unlike Teddy, concentrated on trying to look normal. They were a couple. There was middle-aged, burly looking man, red-faced but with quite a smiley expression, quite a lot older than Dudley, but still strikingly similar. Next to him was obviously his partner, a nice looking woman with short, dark hair and a warm smile. Their eyes fell on me, Teddy and Ron. The man's eyes widened very slightly on seeing Teddy and I knew that Teddy's hair spelled out rebellion but I couldn't tell if his reaction was going to be good or bad. But, for some reason, the woman's eyes were fixed on Ron. Or was it me? Her eyes were on one of us, her smile faltered, her brows furrowed by the slightest amount. Ron ears reddened even more. But before the woman got a chance to explain her sudden change of expression, Teddy's hair quickly caught her attention. Her eyebrows raised and she seemed to smile slightly. I couldn't blame her. What would she see when she looked at him? Probably a deranged and unshaven man that looked barely out his teens, not to mention the multi-coloured hair. In response to her reaction, I gave Teddy a look.

Augusta looked simply horrified. She was lost for words before she remembered that she was the hostess here and that she ought to introduce them. Dudley and William, both behind her, stared at Teddy.

'Er, this is Dudley's cousin, Harry Potter. That is Harry's brother-in-law, Ronald Weasley, and that's Harry's godson, Teddy.' She murmured feebly.

**Sorry, I know this chapter is pretty short, but I had this part sitting in my computer for a while now, I'm ashamed to say that for quite a while, I'd simply forgotten about this story. Now that I'm a little more experienced in my writing (because I started writing this before starting the most basic qualification in English that my country offers) and now that I'm a little better read, I feel like this can actually turn into something good.**

**I decided to upload this despite its length, just to prove that I will be continuing this, and that I've decided to take up this story again, and slowly but surely, I think I'm going to get there.:)**

**-Da Righter**

**(sorry, about that ^ I couldn't resist:D)**


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